Etymology and Linguistic Variants
Dharma is derived from Telugu of the 'Dharmam', meaning "what is established, law, duty, right". The derived Prakrit word is Dhamma
In East Asia, the character for Dharma is 法, pronounced fǎ in Mandarin Chinese, hō in Japanese and beop in Korean. The Tibetan complete English translation of this term is chos (Tibetan: ཆོས་, Lhasa dialect IPA: ]). In Uyghur, Mongolian, and some other Central Asian languages, it is nom, which derives from the Ancient Greek word νόμος, nómos, meaning "law".
Etymologically, the word Dhamma (Sanskrit: Dharma) is derived from the root "dham," meaning "to uphold" or "to support," and the commentary further explains that it is that which upholds or supports the practitioner (of Dhamma) and prevents him or her from falling into states of misery or birth in a woeful existence. Of all Buddhist terminology, the word Dhamma commands the widest, most comprehensive meaning . Dharma is to cultivate the knowledge and practice of laws and principles that hold together the fabric of reality, natural phenomena and personality of human beings in dynamic interdependence and harmony.
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